Seat cushioning means



A ril 3, 1962 J. E. HECKETHORN SEAT CUSHIONING MEANS Filed Nov. 7, 1960 I NV EN TOR. Ja /Y f flit/(57770? United States Patent Office 3,628,201 Patented Apr. 3 1962 3,028,201 SEAT CUSHIONENG MEANS John E. Heckethorn, Dyershurg, Tenn, assignor to Heckethorn Manufacturing & Supply Co., Dyersburg, Tenn., a corporation of Qolorado Filed Nov. 7, 1960, Ser. No. 67,737 2 Claims. (Cl. 27453) This invention relates to seat cushioning means and has for its principal object the provision of a combined seat cushion and back-rest cushion of a type which will be adaptable for use in the popular concave-back, buckettype seats at present in use in sport-type automobiles so as to provide a comfortable, portable, accurately fitting, auxiliary, air-cooled seat and back cushion which will effectively maintain itself in place and in which the back rest portion can be folded down upon the seat portion to provide compact portability and in which the seat portion can be quickly detached from the back-rest portion for other uses such as in grandstands and the like.

Another object of the invention is to provide a lightweight, comfortable, fully ventilated cushion structure more particularly designed for use on automobile seats, so designed as to allow full and free air circulation through the cushion and yet to provide an exceedingly smooth, level, lightweight and comfortable seating surface.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail construction of the invention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and efiiciency. These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is had to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numerals refer to like parts in all views of the drawing and throughout the description.

in the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the completely assembled, improved seat cushioning device as it would appear in use;

FIG. 2 is a top view of the seat portion of the cushioning device, partially broken away to show the interior construction;

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the back-rest portion of the cushioning device also partially broken away to show the interior construction;

FIG. 4 is a top view looking downwardly on the backrest portion of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a front view of the seat portion of FIG. 2 partially broken away to show the interior construction.

The improved auxiliary cushioning means or device comprises a seat portion and a back-rest portion 11. The seat portion 10 contains a flat spring seat pad shaped to fit the peripheral contour of a conventional bucket seat. The spring seat pad is outlined by means of a relatively heavy peripheral frame wire 12 within the confines of which an endless coil spring 13 is spirally wound in a flat plane to cover the entire area of the pad. The adjacent turns of the endless coil spring 13 are interlocked together by means of an interlocking wire 14 which is woven through the adjacent turns of the coil spring to interlock the turns together in a flat, resilient spring seat pad.

The spring seat pad is enclosed between a top sheet 15 and a bottom sheet 16 of a suitable plastic coated netting having an open weave. The two sheets 15 and 16 extend outwardly beyond the frame wire 12 and are stitched together around their peripheries by lines of stitching 17 so as to form a relatively flat, flexible border flap 18 entirely about the spring seat pad. The female portion of a medial snap fastener 19 is mounted in the border flap 18 at the middle of the back thereof and two similar female portions of side snap fasteners 20, are mounted in the border flap at each side of, forwardly of, and in spaced relation to the medial fastener 19.

The back-rest portion 11 also contains a spring back pad shaped to fit the peripheral contour of a conventional bucket type back-rest. The latter pad is outlined by means of a peripheral frame wire 21 extending about the entire periphery of the back-rest portion. A plurality of substantially parallel, spirally interlocked, coil springs 22 extend horizontally across the back portion and are secured at their extremities to the side portions of the frame wire 21, as indicated at 23, to form a continuous flat spring structure over the entire area of the back-rest portion. The bottom portion of the frame wire 21 is bent on an arc to conform to the arcuate rear extremity of the seat portion 10 and the upper portion of the frame wire 21 is arcuately bent to conform to the curvature of a conventional bucket seat back.

The spring pad of the back-rest portion 11 is enclosed between two sheets of the plastic coating netting similar to that used on the seat portion, there being a front sheet 24 and a back sheet 28. The two sheets 24 and 28 project outwardly beyond the frame Wire 21 about their entire peripheries and the projecting portions are stitched together, as indicated at 26, to form a flexible border flap 25 completely about the back-rest portion. The male portion 29 of a medial snap fastener is clinched through the medial portion of the border flap 25 at the bottom of the back-rest portion and the male portions 27 of two conventional side snap fasteners are clinched through the border flap 25 in spaced relation to the center fastener portion 29 to correspond to the spacing of the female snap fastener portions 19 and 20.

When the back-rest portion is not desired, the seat portion as shown in FIG. 2, can be quickly detached and used independently. When the two portions are to be used together, the female fasteners 19 and 20 are snapped onto the male fasteners 29 and 27 to join the seat portion 16 and the back portion 11, as shown in FIG. 1, so that it will fit naturally and comfortably into a conventional bucket seat. Should it be desired to store or carry the complete cushion, the center fastener 19-29 can be detached and the back portion 1-1 can be folded forwardly and downwardly onto the seat portion 10, the flexible border flaps adjacent the side fasteners 20-27 acting as flexible hinges.

The particular placement of the three snap fasteners is important and two advantages are obtained thereby: first, the positioning of the side fasteners forwardly of the rear fastener provides forward and back bracing for the back-rest to retain at a rigid predetermined vertical angle for placement in and removal from the seat and for maintaining the back-rest in position when making a sudden stop; and second, the forward and side placement of the side fasteners locks the sides of the back-rest portion to the seat portion to prevent spreading of the sides of the back-rest portion and maintaining normal lateral body retention in a bucket-type seat. During development, the side fasteners were eliminated as an experiment. It was found that in a few days the back-rest portion would slaughter and spread its base thus forcing the seat portion forward and out of place.

The particular placement of the springs on the backrest portion is also important. The parallel coil construction provides an exceedingly thin resilient cushion and since the coils run horizontally, sideward roll is resisted when turning sharp curves.

While a specific form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein, it is to be understood that the same may be varied within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A seat cushion comprising: a fiat resilient spring pad having a rounded back edge and a seat-like contour; a fiat, flexible air-pervious enclosure for said pad; :1 flexible projecting edge border surrounding and outlining said enclosure and the rounded back edge thereof; three detachabie fasteners mounted in said edge border at the rear of said pad; and a back-rest cushion detachably attached to and projecting upwardly from said fasteners, said back-rest cushion being transversally curvated to correspond to the curvature of said rounded back edge, one of said fasteners being positioned at the middle of said rounded back edge border and one at each side in spaced relation to the medial fastener and in transverse alignment so that together they form a hinge to ailow forward and back folding of said back-rest when the medial fastener is released.

2. Cushioning means for a bucke -type seat of the type having an indented-curvated back comprising: a backrest cushion curvated laterally to correspond to the indented curvature of the back of said seat; a seat cushion having a rounded rear edge to correspond to the lateral curvature of said back-rest cushion; a medial snap-fastener upon the center line and at the rear of said seat cushion; two side snap-fasteners positioned at the sides of said seat cushion forwardly of said medial snap-fastener; and flexible, peripheral border flaps surrounding both said seat cushion and said back-rest cushion, said fasteners being mounted in the juxtaposed border flaps, said backrest cushion being fold'able forwardly and downwardly on said seat cushion due to the flexibility of said border flaps when said medial fastener is detached.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,756,182 Drane Apr. 29, 1930 2,129,353 Harley Sept. 6, 1938 2,710,646 Kirby June 14, 1955 

